Summers answered the question by underlining the University’s commitment to diversity and academic freedom, while also asserting his own duty to question professors on their activities.

“It seems to me there is no more important task for University leadership...than asking of every member of the University community their maximum contribution to the University’s intellectual environment,” Summers said.

Summers spent a little over two days in Japan, arriving Jan. 27 and returning to Cambridge Jan. 29.

In addition to the sessions with Prime Minister Koizumi and former and current finance ministers, Summers met with members of the Japanese royal family, including Crown Princess Masako ’85. Summers gave Masako, who trained under Summers’ colleague, Harvard economist Jeffrey D. Sachs, a baby-sized Harvard tee-shirt for her newborn baby.

Other stops for Summers included a 5 a.m. visit to the world’s largest sushi market. Summers’ interest in the market had been piqued by Anthropology Professor Theodore Bestor’s work on the global sushi economy.

—Staff writer David H. Gellis can be reached at gellis@fas.harvard.edu.